THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Associ-
ation Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17615 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices.
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the third day of Tamuz, 5731, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, NUM. 16:1-18:32. Prophetical portion., I Samuel 11:14-12:32.
Candle lighting. Friday. June 25, 7:54 p.m.
VOL. LIX. No. 15
Page Four
June 25, 1971
Israel's Peoplehood: Unified Jewish Agency
When the Jewish Agency for Palestine
was organized in Zurich, Switzerland, at the
historic meetings in August 1929, the inten-
tion of the creators of the unified movement
for the Jewish national home was clear: it
was to be much more than a mere Zionist
effort; it was to be the "public body" of the
entire Jewish people.
The late Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Louis
Marshall were the prime movers of the idea
and at that meeting they were joined by such
world figures as Felix Warburg, Leon Blum,
Albert Einstein, Sir Herbert Samuel, Mena-
hem Ussishkin, Nahum Sokolow, Shalom
Asch, Lord Melchett, Osmond d'Avigdor
Goldsmid, Chief Rabbi Uziel of Tel Aviv, and
other notables, who joined in acclaiming and
endorsing the declaration of the late Mr.
Marshall that "Palestine will be rebuilt!"
No one at that time could assert with
confidence that in less than 20 more years
the dream of Theodor Herzl would become a
reality. Now, with the historic aspiration ful-
filled, the idea of a unified Jewish Agency
that must represent all of Jewry again is fore-
most on the agenda of Jewish world activities.
, The convening of the world Jewish lead-
ers in Israel during the coming week for the
purpose of reorganizing the Jewish Agency
as a fully representative body in reality ful-
fills the aspirations of its creators. The Jewish
Agency is to emerge anew as much more than
a Zionist body: it is to become the unified
and unifying force in Jewish life.
But the Zionist idea therein nevertheless
prevails. Of the 296 members in the New
Jewish Agency Council, one half the number
will be appointed by the Zionist General
Council, the other half by Jewish bodies
throughout the world. The Zionist representa-
tion will include the Zionist General Council
members-64 Israelis, 42 from the United
States and 42 from other countries. The 148
members labeled as non-Zionist will be from
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, Central America, Chile, Colombia,
Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland,
Iran, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Rhodesia, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United
States, Uruguay, Venezuela and West Ger-
many.
It is sad to record that countries whose
Jewries were members of the Jewish Agency
in 1929 but will not be represented in this
year's reorganized body are Bulgaria, Czecho-
slovakia, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, North Africa, Poland and Romania.
Their absence is an echo of the tragedies that
are rooted in prejudice. But there will be new
representatives on the Jewish Agency execu-
tive from Brazil, Central America, Chile, Co-
lombia, Denmark, Iran, Mexico, Peru, Rho-
desia, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Those who created the framework for the
Jewish Agency for Palestine could not have
dreamt about a redeemed Israel. Neither
could they have imagined in 1929, that the
Holocaust was to destroy a third of world
Jewry.
There has been rebuilding and redemp-
tion in the interim. The reorganized Jewish
Agency spells continuity of the historic idea,
and a timely supplement to its basic ideas
also will be the responsibility for security and
protection for Israel's statehood and the idea
that stems from Zionism and is now imbedded
in the great agency's representative Jewish
character.
Detroit Jewry is ably represented in the
new body—in the chairmanship of Max M.
Fisher and the additional executive committee
membership of Paul Zuckerman. It is a source
of pride for our community and is an added
factor in our deep 'concern that links us with
the People Israel as embodied in the princi-
ples of faith, in the security of rootedness in
the homeland Israel and the emphasis that
is embodied in the ideal of an Am Ehad-
One People.
Rightists and Leftists: Bedfellows in Venom
Extreme rightists, the bigots whO fail to
recognize the basic principles of our demo-
cratic society, often join the most notorious
leftists when spreading their anti-Semitic
venom.
This is the case with several of the hate-
mongering groups whose appeals to intoler-
ance is seldom complete unless the anti-Jew-
ish sentiment also emphasizes anti-Zionism.
This is how the hate-spreading element
emerges as a lunatic fringe. The anti-Zionist
insanity is especially rooted in the Communist
ranks. It is as an inspiration from the Krem-
lin that the attacks on Israel have taken on
immense proportion. It is from such ideolo-
gies that the leftists have become haters of
the libertarian Jewish ideal.
Is it possible that the rightist lunatic
fringes not only are blinded by the venom of
anti-Semitism but do not even see the hand
of Communism which they hate so much
when they, too, adopt an anti-Zionist policy?
Yet the merger in hatred links Moscow
with Cairo — and now with the rightists in
Dearborn, Mich.!
That's how it always is: in order to hate
with all the passion that a bigot can embrace
he becomes a bedfellow of his bitterest
enemy.
Recognition for Truman's Humanitarianism
Anniversaries serve to retain interest in
important historical events. A reminder of
a significant occasion was offered at the 87th
annual meeting of United .Hias Service when
the "Liberty Award" was presented in ab-
sentia to former President Harry S Truman
for an important service in providing haven
for survivors of Nazism.
The presentation marked the 25th anni-
versary of the arrival in New York, on May
20, 1946, of the S.S. Marine Flasher with
800 of the surviving victims of the Holocaust.
A plaque that is being placed in the
Truman Library in Independence, Mo., hon-
ors President Truman for "his foresight and
compassion in easing the plight of innocent
victims of Nazi brutality during his admin-
istration as President of the United States.
His directive of Dec. 22, 1945, expedited the
admission of thousands of displaced persons
from Europe. Included among them were
large numbers of Jewish men, women and
children who have found peace, freedom and
security in our country."
We often condemn those who had failed
to provide rescue for the millions who were
terrorized by the Hitlerites. It is well that
the humanitarians should not be forgotten.
It is proper that President Truman's wise
and firm position of justice for the oppressed
should be on record and should be properly
honored.
Friedenberg's 'Jewish Medals'
Provides Historical Analyses
An unusual aspect of history is provided in a study of medals.
Daniel M. Friedenberg, curator of coins and medals of the Jewish
Museum of New York, in his most interesting book "Jewish Medals—
From the Renaissance to the Fall of Napoleon (1503-1815)," deals
with a variety of subjects that reveal not only the history of issuance
of medals that acknowledge the achievements of Jews as individuals
and on a communal basis but also the resort to medals by anti-Semites
to degrade Jews.
This volume, published by the Jewish Museum for whom it was
printed by Clarkson N. Potter for distribution by Crown Publishers,
is fully illustrated and the reproduction of the many medals, with the
explanatory notes, gains the merits of authoritativeness.
A lengthy index and 48 pages of notes, out of a total of 150 pages,
are evidence of the extent of the author's studies of a most interesting
subject.
The fact that the first 25 pages are devoted to "Anti-Semitic
Medals" indicates at once the extent of prejudices that existed in
the yeari under review. The author states: 'With the exception
of one Belgian medal and a rather odd English medal, all anti-
Semitic medals from early days are of Germanic origin."
The "Korn Jude" medal was issued toward the end of the 17th
Century. It related to hard times, when the Jew was the scapegoat,
and the author calls attention to its reissuance as a variant in 1923
when inflation was ripe in Germany.
Numerous "Korn Jude" medals are depicted and explained. Then
there were the Pietism, Mockery, Frankfurt Ghetto Fire, Jud Suess
and numerous other medals of an anti-Semitic nature.
Medals were issued for Marranos and Christian converts and
while they were not numerous they form an interesting chapter in
Friedenberg's book.
From the middle 18th to the middle 19th centuries, medals
were issued portraying the slow rise of Jewish emancipation. There
was a medal on the repeal of the edict expelling Jews from Prague,
another on the Edict of Toleration. There was one the die of
which, in Latin, read: "Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ever
August, Imperial Tolerance."
Interestingly, there was a medal issued by Czar Alexander I
on the occasion of the freeing of Jews from a special. tax, "though
not from restricted living areas," in 1805. This medal carried the
initials P. M. which stand for Paul Merker, the medalist. Friedenberg
explains that Merker's identity had not been established for many
years, and he states in this regard:
"It is thought by some writers that the medal was struck outsi
Russia and that a unique piece in gold was presented to 'Alexander L
This seems to be substantiated by the fact that this medal precedes
by many years any other issuance. of the Russian Jewish community.
Note should also be made that Paul Merker, the medalist, came from
Brunswick and the medal therefore might have been commissioned
by the Jews of Berlin."
Many medals commemorate individual Jews. Among those listed,
with reproductions of medals, are Abramo Norsa (1505-1709), Ella
Delatas and his mother, Daniel Abensur, Lippman Meyer, Mose Ben-
2
jamin Foa and others.
Most notable in this grouping are those of the historically
famous Gracia Nasi, of Moses Mendelssohn, of the famous Jewish • '
prizefighter Daniel Mendbza and the convert to Judaism Lord
George Gordon (175143).
Then there is a chapter on medals commemorating notable Jewish
activities in various European communities.
Other medals have Christian connotations and some by Jews have
a bearing on historical events of a general nature with specific Jewish
interests related to them.
Medals, like stamps serve a purpose in creating an interest in
historical analyses. In addition to drawing attention to a most inter-
esting subject, Friedenberg's "Jewish Medals" does just that.